Dubai-based Disrupt.com to invest $100M in AI startups

Dubai-based venture capital firm Disrupt.com has announced plans to invest $100 million in artificial intelligence startups at the intersection of Web3 and other industries, in a move that could further commercialize emerging AI technology. 

According to a Feb. 27 announcement, the funds will back AI startups building solutions for cybersecurity, Web3, automotive technology, and the retail sector, among others. 

Disrupt.com’s founders were the creators of cloud solutions provider Cloudways, which was acquired in 2022 by the US-based Digital Ocean Holdings for $350 million in cash. 

The funding round was announced on the heels of a disappointing year for venture capital funding in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Regional startups secured $2.3 billion in funding last year, marking a 42% drop from 2023, according to Arab News. 

The decline was similar across the broader emerging venture market landscape, which includes MENA, Africa, Pakistan, Turkiye and Southeast Asia, according to data provider Magnitt. 

Nevertheless, the United Arab Emirates remained the single largest VC market in the MENA region, with local companies raising $1.1 billion across 207 deals last year.

AI becomes a VC magnet

Looking beyond emerging markets, US venture capital backing of AI companies has surged recently. EY reported a 57% increase in AI venture deals in the fourth quarter, with the four largest deals valued at a combined $26.6 billion. 

“With the infrastructure for AI still relatively immature, investment dollars should continue to flow into this space for the immediate future, capturing an expected 45% of all VC funding in 2025, building on the trend from 2024,” EY said. 

AI startups are capitalizing on major technical breakthroughs from companies like OpenAI and Anthropic, whose large language models are being used by developers across a range of industries and use cases, including content creation, customer service, data analytics and code generation. 

Generative AI inference — or the use of trained models to create content based on new input data — is set to be the next “killer app for edge computing,” according to Bain & Company. 

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